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Mikitani said Rakuten, which is sometimes called "Japan's
Amazon", would offer free international calls from the United
States to the seven affected countries through its call and
messaging app Viber.
"I am very sad to see what is happening now in the U.S. I came
to U.S. when I was seven and I really respect big American big
heart," said Mikitani, who earned an MBA from Harvard in 1993,
on Twitter on Monday.
"But it is wrong as a human being to uniformly discriminate
based on religion and nationality. We will make sure we will
support our Muslim staff members as a company and personally as
well."
Viber Media Inc, which Rakuten acquired for $900 million in
2014, had 823 million registered users as of September 2016.
Calls between Viber users are free, but calls to non-users or
landline numbers are usually charged.
Trump said his directive was "not about religion" but keeping
America safe from the threat of Islamist militants.
Mikitani learned to speak English at the age of 7, when his
family lived in the United States while his father taught
economics at Yale University, the Harvard Business School
website said.
"My dad is crying in the heaven. He went to Harvard, Stanford
and Yale," he tweeted. "He was so proud and I am too. Now I am
really crying."
(Reporting by Teppei Kasai; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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